‘Mummy wants a boob job for Christmas’: Inside the life of a professional Santa
When a chatty little girl visited Father Christmas, the last thing Paul Haslam expected to be on her wish list was a boob job.
“They were two sisters, about two and five, and the older one was doing all the talking,” the professional Santa Claus tells Sky News.
A Barbie dreamhouse, some Teletubbies toys and sweets were all on the five-year-old’s Christmas list.
“I said to her, ‘Thank you, is that all?’ And she thought for a moment and went: ‘Mummy wants a boob job’,” he says, laughing.
“You should have seen the dad’s face.”
Paul has been working as Santa for 16 years, a side hustle he started after spotting a poster in his local garden centre recruiting a “tubby guy to come work for us in four weeks in December”.
“I thought it sounded like a laugh,” he says. “The first time I did it I was absolutely hooked.
“I was in the grotto for eight hours and when I came out, I said to the guy in charge, ‘that was so much fun, I should be paying you’.”
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Inside a Santa Claus academy
‘The sack didn’t open’
His career as Mr Claus has even taken him to the stage with Mariah Carey.
“I got a call asking what I was doing the next day, and was told Mariah was performing in Manchester and her Santa had let her down.
“The proviso was, make sure you’ve got your sack – they’re going to fill it with cuddly toys and you and Mariah will throw them into the crowd.”
But when the big moment came, the sack didn’t open.
“The guy who had tightened it was her bodyguard, he was huge, and it took us ages to get it open.”
Paul has taken to the stage with Mariah Carey
‘Sausage factories’
Gary Cordes, a former solicitor, also took up being a Santa as a fun way to fill retirement.
He too started out in garden centres, but says the heavy footfall venues are just “sausage factories”.
“It is about people being pushed through, no time to talk to the children,” he says.
“In one, I was stuck in this windowless room for nine hours and was absolutely wrecked by the end of it. I want to engage with the families, actually have time with them.”
Gary is a former solicitor who found a fun way to fill retirement
Similarly, Paul says he once worked in a venue that told him he had to get each family in and out in 30 seconds.
“They just wanted to take people’s money and get them out.”
Gary now works at larger venues, including recently at the O2 Arena during Disney On Ice, as well as working corporate events.
“I love to interact with the kids, I try and move around the room or sit on the floor in front of the fireplace. They don’t often expect Santa to move around,” he says.
Gary working as Santa at the O2 Arena
‘My son thinks I am helping Santa’
Simon Young is young in every sense – at 37, he’s on the lower end of the age scale to work as a Santa. But when their existing Santa dropped out two years ago at Reuthe’s The Lost Garden Of Sevenoaks, he agreed to be a last-minute replacement.
“Because Santa is usually quite old, as you go into winter that can be quite unreliable with dropping out because of flu, or illness, and that’s what happened to us. We had three days to find someone.”
Simon has five children, aged from six to 16, and his youngest still believes in Father Christmas
“He knows I am Santa but thinks that the real Santa asked me for help to see the children here. He thinks the real Santa comes to see me, drops off loads of presents and I then give them out to other children.”
Recently, his youngest son came home saying a fellow pupil on the playground had told him Santa wasn’t real.
His seven-year-old was quick to reassure his brother, telling him the child at his school was being stupid, “because where else did presents come from, does he think parents just buy them?”
Simon working as Santa
Hilarious to heartbreaking
Not every child enjoys their visit to Santa, says Gary.
“If they’re not old enough, sometimes they just scream because they are scared,” he says. “So, I just say to the parents, we will have a good chat next year. I don’t want them to have a bad experience.”
They can sometimes come in with a big, long list, and Simon says he will look to the parents: “But I never commit to anything.”
Simon is a former member of the Royal Navy who served during the Gulf War, but says this job is “higher pressure”.
“There is so much weight attached to it, you don’t want to say the wrong thing and ruin someone’s Christmas,” he says.
And not every request a child has is one that’s easy to be filled.
“My first year, second day, I had a little girl who said she didn’t want her terminally ill dad to die,” says Simon. “She had been looking forward to coming to see Santa so she could ask him that.”
Paul grows emotional when he talks about similar experiences.
“I have had children ask if grandma or grandpa can come visit them again,” he says.
“I hold my hand up to them – we aren’t allowed to hug them – and I say that’s not in my bit of magic. My bit of magic is different. But I’ll tell you what, when I get back, if I can find them I will have a word and I’ll tell them you still love them.
“That’s the best I can do.”
Paul has been working as Santa for more than a decade
The cost of Santa’s beard
Being a Santa is not going to make you rich, especially not when you invest in your own costume, says Paul.
His beard is made from the belly hair of a yak and cost him £650.
“I spent a week’s wages on a wig and beard,” he says. “But you don’t do it for the money.”
And while some opportunities can be lucrative – Gary was offered a stint at Lapland for £1,500 a week – Paul has heard of companies abroad offering just £50 a day to Santa and his elves.
“I also did an event with a reindeer – the reindeer got paid more than I did,” Paul says.
“You’ve got to love the job, you don’t do it for the money.”
Before the amps are even switched on in Brockwell Park, there’s been a lot of noise about who should or shouldn’t be performing.
It’s where Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap are set to play their first major show since band member Mo Chara was charged for allegedly displaying a flag in support of the terrorist group Hezbollah at one of their gigs.
Before that, there had been calls for festivals to reconsider booking the band over their political stances, and several have done, which prompted artists like Brian Eno, the Mystery Jets and CMAT to sign an open letter accusing Westminster and the British media of a campaign to “remove Kneecap from the public eye”.
They put their names to wording that said “in a democracy, no political figures… have the right to dictate who does and does not play at music festivals.”
The band have since claimed they’re the victims of “political policing” designed to silence their views on Gaza.
So what’s the reality like for artists who are outspoken at a time when the world is so divided?
As some of the biggest names in music gathered in London for the Ivors, an annual celebration of songwriting, Self-Esteem – aka Rebecca Lucy Taylor – said the level of scrutiny can be “terrifying”.
‘The problem with the internet’
She told Sky News: “The problem with the internet is you say one thing, which gets scrutinised, and then you shit yourself, you really do… then you’re advised not to. And then you’re like ‘don’t advise me not to!’
“You second-guess anything you want to say any more… but any time I do that, I think ‘well that’s why you’ve got to say it then’.”
She said it can be frustrating that focus turns on to pop stars’ opinions instead of “the people doing the bad things”.
Read more:
Why are Kneecap controversial?
Self-Esteem, aka Rebecca Lucy Taylor
‘Being a pop artist isn’t just about the music’
Former Little Mix singer Jade said: “To be a pop artist these days, it’s not just about music, it’s: ‘What’s your political stance?’
“I’ve always been quite vocal about those things, but in doing so you have even more of a scary spotlight on you, constantly assessing what your thoughts are as a human…it is scary.”
Trinidad-born London artist Berwyn, whose songs depict his struggles with UK immigration, says: “Silencing freedom of speech… is a road we don’t want to walk down.
“I’m not a politician, this is a very complicated issue, but I do absolutely believe in a human’s right to express themselves freely.”
But is that freedom of speech dependent on what side you’re coming from?
Berwyn speaking to Sky News
‘Unethical investments’
Soon, an event called Mighty Hoopla will take place at Brockwell Park as part of its programme of six festivals this summer.
Artists performing at that are coming under increased pressure from pro-Palestine groups to quit because it’s owned by a company called Superstruct, which has links to an American investment firm called KKR.
Critics argue that any KKR-affiliated events should be a red flag to artists as campaigners claim it “invests billions of pounds in companies” that do things like “develop Israeli underground data centres”, and they say it has shares in companies that “advertise property on illegally occupied land in the West Bank”.
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Mighty Hoopla itself has said while it “cannot control investments made in our parent companies”, it wants to “state its clear opposition to KKR’s unethical investments”.
And Superstruct – which puts on over 80 festivals around the world – says while horrified by the crisis in Gaza: “We are aware that there is a significant amount of debate… around our festivals.
“Our owners, made up of our promoters and several investment firms, support us to achieve the highest standards… fans and artists rightly expect.”
They insist that operationally, Superstruct is independently run and all its “revenue and profits… remains entirely within our business… towards the ongoing development… of our festivals.”
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Even deciding where to perform can have political connotations for musicians these days.
As Tom Gray, a founding member of the rock band Gomez, now chair of the Ivors, explains: “The amount of commercial interest required to get a young artist into the public eye means they have to keep their head down a lot and that’s a terrible shame.
“It’s not just artistic expression, but personal human expression is one of the fundamental things that allows people to feel they have agency.”
Kid Cudi has told a court Sean “Diddy” Combs broke into his home, “messed with” his dog and opened some of his Christmas presents during a break-in in December 2011.
The 41-year-old rapper was giving evidence on day nine of the trial, after briefly dating Diddy’s former girlfriend Cassie the same year.
Cassie and Diddy dated for 11 years, from 2007 to 2018, and Cassie has testified the rapper physically abused her during most of their relationship.
Cudi described Cassie phoning him early one morning, sounding “stressed, nervous and scared”, telling him Diddy had “found out about us”.
He said Diddy later called him from his home and told him, “I’m here waiting for you”.
After dropping Cassie at a West Hollywood hotel, Cudi said he returned to his home and found no one there, but said his dog had been locked in the bathroom.
He described his pet later becoming “jittery and on edge all the time”.
He also said someone had opened Christmas presents he’d bought for his family.
While Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, said he initially wanted “to fight” Diddy, he later thought through “the reality of the situation,” and called the police to report the break-in.
Earlier this week, Cassie finished giving four days of evidence, becoming emotional at times, and testifying that Combs had threatened to blow up Cudi’s car and hurt him after he learned she was dating him by looking at messages on her phone during a “freak off”.
Prosecutors say Combs, the founder of Bad Boy Records, forced women to take part in days-long, drug-fuelled sexual performances known as “Freak Offs” from 2004 to 2024, facilitated by his large retinue of staff.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty.
The rapper faces five criminal counts: one count of racketeering conspiracy; two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.
Diddy and Cassie on a red carpet in 2016. Pic: zz/JMA/STAR MAX/IPx/AP
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial: Day 9 – As it happened
The month after the break-in, Cudi’s Porsche was firebombed in his drive, with a hole cut into the roof and a Molotov cocktail dropped into the driver’s seat.
Cudi said he realised he had to talk to Diddy, before things “got out of hand,” meeting up with Diddy, who he said was weirdly “calm” and staring out the window with his hands behind his back “like a Marvel super villain”.
Cudi says Diddy told him he had still been dating Cassie during his relationship with her, with Cudi replying: “[Cassie] told me you were broke up and I took her word for it.”
Shaking hands at the end of the conversation, Cudi said he asked Diddy about “burning” his car, and Diddy replied, “I don’t know what you’re talking about”. Cudi later said he believed that to be a lie.
Cudi says he saw Diddy once a few years later at Soho House in Los Angeles with his daughter, and Diddy told him: “Man, I just want to apologise for all that bullshit”.
Diddy sketched in court while listening to Kaplan’s testimony. Pic: Reuters/Jane Rosenberg
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During his cross-examination, the defence suggested Cassie had been “living two different lives”, and “played” both Cudi and Combs.
Cudi concluded his time on the stand, saying his relationship with Cassie ended because he wanted “to give her space” and “the drama was too out of hand”.
Celebrity make-up artist Mylah Morales also gave evidence, describing a fight between Cassie and Diddy in 2010, which she says left Cassie with a “swollen eye, busted lip, and knots on her head”.
Celebrity make-up artist Mylah Morales. Pic: AP
Morales said while she had heard the row, she hadn’t physically seen it as she wasn’t in the room.
She told the court, “I feared for my life”, explaining that she took Cassie to her apartment for several days to recover, but that Cassie refused to go to hospital as she was afraid of Diddy’s reaction.
The defence attempted to damage Morales’s credibility by listing her TV appearances, which included programmes on CNN, and with Don Lemon and Piers Morgan, attempting to paint her as attention-seeking.
The day also saw Combs’s former assistant George Kaplan complete his testimony.
George Kaplan, former assistant to Combs. Pic: AP
He talked about two occasions when he had been asked to carry cash for Diddy, who he said never paid for things himself in the moment, recalling one time in 2015 when he looked after $50,000, and another when he was asked to pick up $10,000.
Kaplan described seeing “regular” physical violence between Cassie and Diddy, including an incident in 2015 with whisky glasses on a private plane, when he heard glass breaking and saw Diddy standing over Cassie in the plane’s central aisle.
He says he also saw Diddy hurling “decorative apples” at another of his girlfriends, Gina, late the same year, handing in his notice the following month.
Also known throughout his career as Puff Daddy and P Diddy, Combs turned artists like Notorious BIG and Usher into household names, elevating hip-hop in American culture and becoming a billionaire in the process.
Diddy has been held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since September and faces at least 15 years or possibly life in prison if convicted.
The trial is set to last for around six weeks in total and will go into its third week next week.
Irish rock star Bono has called for Israel to be “released from Benjamin Netanyahu and far-right fundamentalists” during an awards ceremony.
The U2 frontman’s comments at the Ivors mark the first time the human rights activist has spoken out in public against the Israeli prime minister since the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023.
Bono, who received the Peace Summit Award at the 2008 Nobel Peace Laureates summit, also called for Hamas to release its remaining Israeli hostages.
It comes as Western leaders have been criticising Mr Netanyahu and the Israeli authorities over the renewed offensive in the Palestinian territory and the risk of famine due to an 11-week aid blockade, which is slowly easing.
Gaza war: Follow latest updates
Bono, whose real name is Paul Hewson, said on Thursday evening at London’s Grosvenor House: “Peace creates possibilities in the most intractable situations.
“Lord knows there’s a few of them out there right now. Hamas release the hostages. Stop the war.
“Israel be released from Benjamin Netanyahu and far-right fundamentalists that twist your sacred texts.
“All of you protect our aid workers, they are the best of us.”
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Bono, 65, made the call for peace as he and fellow U2 members each received an award from pop star Ed Sheeran.
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The group became the first Irish songwriters to be awarded an academy fellowship at the 70th year of the awards.
U2 then performed their song Sunday Bloody Sunday, which references the 1972 Bloody Sunday shootings in Londonderry, where members of the British army’s Parachute Regiment opened fire at civil rights demonstrators.
The group ended the evening with a performance of their 1988 song Angel Of Harlem.
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Netanyahu hits out at Starmer, Macron and Carney
Also on Thursday, Mr Netanyahu said UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was “on the wrong side of humanity” after he called for an end to the war in Gaza.
In a video he shared on social media, the Israeli prime minister also attacked the leaders of France and Canada for their criticism of Israel’s actions in the conflict.
Mr Netanyahu specifically linked the criticism from the UK, France and Canada to the killings in Washington DC of Israeli embassy workers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim on Wednesday night.
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